Klicker '12 exemplifies global engagement

by
Beth Stefanik, Reves Center for International Studies
|
May 8, 2012

Peter Klicker’s
interest in international affairs began well before he ever set foot in
Williamsburg, but it was his time at the College of William & Mary that
brought him the opportunities to engage on a global scale.

As a junior at
Emmaus High School in Emmaus, Pa., Klicker ’12 was selected to attend the
Pennsylvania Governor’s School for International Studies at the University of
Pittsburgh. While there, his classwork included courses in international
diplomacy, international communication and international political economy.
Unsurprisingly, his experience deepened an emerging interest in international
relations.

When he returned to
school in the fall, a family friend and college placement advisor helped Klicker
plan possible college choices. William & Mary was presented as a “reach”
school, but one that intrigued him.

“The size is really
interesting,” said Klicker. “It’s big enough to have a lot of resources but
small enough to have real faculty-student interaction. I was also always
interested in public service and William & Mary has such a proud tradition,
going back centuries, as well as with more contemporary people like (Chancellor)
Robert Gates.”

While weighing his
options, Klicker did some research on the College and discovered the study abroad
programs and Washington, D.C., Office, but was troubled by the main campus
location.

“My only concern was
that while Williamsburg is very nice, it’s not very cosmopolitan,” he admitted.
“I was worried about getting a global education.”

Students Helping
Honduras

Klicker needn’t have
worried. Shortly after arriving in Williamsburg, he was presented with the
opportunity to join Students Helping Honduras (SHH) on a service trip to El
Progresso, Honduras. SHH was founded in 2006 by Cosmo Fujiyama, a graduate of
the College, and her brother Shin Fujiyama, and brings college students from
across the country to volunteer in Honduras throughout the year. Klicker
repeated the trip his sophomore spring.

In Honduras Klicker
helped build a new village for a community originally displaced by Hurricane
Mitch in 1998, working on new homes and an education center so that local
students could enjoy more structured afternoon activities. He also visited
orphanages and engaged in more cultural activities, such as joining children
for soccer games.

“It’s easy to lose
perspective in college and to get stressed out about things like exams or
course selection that don’t matter a great deal in the grand scheme of things,”
mused Klicker. “Volunteering in Honduras reminded me of how fortunate I am to
have so many opportunities and that I have a responsibility to use them in a
way that benefits other people. The
hardest thing is trying to hold onto that perspective after you leave Honduras
and return to campus.”

During his
internship, Klicker compiled daily briefing books for the Assistant Secretary
of State for Political-Military Affairs and
weekly activity reports for the Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and
International Security Affairs. He also reviewed action memos, information
memos and briefing checklists, and attended meetings in order to take notes for
other staff assistants.

“Being a fly on the
wall in meetings and seeing how they’re working it all out was very
interesting,” remembers Klicker. “A lot of those things you hear about in
class, but seeing it in real time, in real life, is just fascinating.”

In fall 2010,
Klicker studied abroad at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, taking
courses in one of the best international relations programs in Europe.

“It was an
interesting semester,” said Klicker. “The teaching style is very different
there. I only had two modules the entire semester, and each module or class met
twice a week, once for a lecture and once for a tutorial, which is a smaller
group.”

In addition to
different course scheduling and teaching styles, Klicker also noticed a
different perspective in the international relations courses.

“There was less
focus on hard power and realism, and much more of an emphasis on discourse and
identity.”

While abroad,
Klicker traveled across Europe, taking in the museums and historical sites of Edinburgh,
Amsterdam, Stockholm, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Seville and London. He also
kept busy putting together a successful application to a summer internship with
the United States Mission to NATO in Brussels, Belgium, and preparing to take a
leave of absence to spend his spring semester in Washington, D.C.

Having accumulated a
number of Advanced Placement (AP) course credits, when Klicker returned to the United
States he was able to spend the next semester focused solely on interning for
the Henry L. Stimson Center, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, institution devoted to
enhancing international peace and security through analysis and outreach.

While interning at
the Stimson Center, Klicker was also a part of a whirlwind two-month project to
complete the only unclassified report commissioned by the Office of the
Director of National Intelligence on the Arab Spring and why the intelligence
community didn’t predict it.

A few weeks later, with
the help of another Reves Center International Internship Scholarship, Klicker
was off to Brussels to work as a Public Affairs Intern in the Programs Office
of the U.S. Mission to NATO. Upon arrival, he was immediately given the task of
arranging a visit for a Taiwanese military delegation.

“It was frightening
and thrilling at the same time,” recounted Klicker. “Frightening because you
wanted to arrange a nice visit for the officials, but exciting because you’re
given that much responsibility.”

Klicker went on to
arrange a number of tours for international groups during his internship,
gaining an insight into “real, first-hand diplomacy,” as well as took notes on
meetings of the North Atlantic Council and other NATO committees, prepared
decision memos for U.S. Permanent Representative NATO and wrote a report on the
effectiveness of a public affairs tour program in Afghanistan.

He also had the good
fortune to meet the then recently-retired Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who
had yet to begin serving as Chancellor of the College.

After being named a
Fellow, Klicker spent fall 2011 thinking about what he’d like to research and a
chance comment at a meeting at Langley Air Force Base sparked his interest.

“My whole project
really originated with a conversation between Professor Smith and an individual
who works for Air Combat Command,” he said.
“I was really interested in what they were saying and ultimately chose
to write my policy brief about it.

“That’s exactly how
PIPS is supposed to work. The whole thing is basically bridging academic and
policy-making communities, and particularly showing that undergrads can make a
meaningful contribution.”

Throughout the
spring semester, Klicker organized phone interviews with individuals affiliated
with the Air Force and aerospace industry and also arranged onsite interviews
at the Pentagon and Capitol Hill. Once a week he would meet with the other PIPS
Fellows to review the progress of their briefs.

“That’s where it was
really the most like a think-tank environment, because you really are all
looking at the papers and PowerPoints and giving suggestions,” remembered
Klicker. “I really enjoyed that collaborative aspect of it.”

Klicker’s policy
brief, “A New ‘Freedom’ Fighter: Building on the T-X Competition,” explored the
idea of exporting low-cost jet trainers to promote military-to-military
cooperation in the developing world. With the other PIPS Fellows, Klicker
presented his work at the 2011-12 PIPS Fellows Symposium at the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace in April, 2012.

New Challenges

Reflecting on his
time at the College, Klicker is quick to point out that his undergraduate
career was shaped by taking advantage of an array of unforeseen opportunities.

“This was not
planned. There was no way when I came in as a freshman I had this elaborate
scheme laid out,” he said. “One thing led to another, and it worked out well.
Every semester I basically looked for the most exciting, challenging thing I
could do.”

Klicker credits an
incredibly active, supportive alumni network as being influential in his
education, saying “people are really willing to give back. I benefitted from it
personally but the College as a whole benefits from those alumni connections.”

Beginning a career
with the federal government over the summer, Klicker is optimistic about the
future and his continued involvement with William & Mary.